Politics Redux

Okay, my sister mentioned that I haven't updated this in a while and the only thing I can think of to write about that can be considered even partially interesting is the 2008 Presidential election. This will be the last time I write about politics, so I will try to fit everything in. I guess if you don't care about the election you can click on another topic or navigate to another page altogether; my feelings won't be hurt...much.

As a preface, I should mention that I am unabashed in my support for John McCain. I signed up for a petition against pork barrel spending on his website and his campaign took it as an invitation to e-mail me about everything from his newest ads to asking for money to letting me know how much Metamucil he took yesterday to help things along. Okay, so most of that last sentence was true. I've decided that I'm not so enamored with him that I start sending him money, but that a mention of his important points on this ever-so-popular blog should suffice. I'm sure there will be some bias evident but I'll do my best to be objective.

First and foremost is the war in Iraq. Certainly Afghanistan should get some mention since that's where the terrorists were before 9/11 and U.S. troops are fighting there, but the biggest concern to the American people seems to be what will happen in Iraq so that will be my focus. Let me just say that I think it was a good idea for Saddam Hussein to be taken out of power; he had killed thousands of people over a period of decades and someone needed to stop him. In fact, someone should have stopped him a long time ago (this had to be with military force, since a trade embargo or other restriction wouldn't do anything; he would have simply taken a higher percentage from the country's income to maintain his quality of life at the expense of the citizens). I don't like the idea that the government struck first since that hadn't happened before that I can remember, but given that he repeatedly refused international inspection for WMD for so long in the aftermath 9/11 this first strike can be explained. Not justified, explained. Anyway, it is evident that something wasn't well thought out and we find ourselves today five years into a war that has claimed 4,000+ U.S. soldiers' lives and many civilian deaths, not to mention other physical and mental injuries. While I don't want to minimize a person dying, I'd like to mention that this death total is by far the lowest since WWI, even by percentage of total serving, with the exception of the Persian Gulf War. While many people do not like U.S. troops dying in this war, the number is far less than other wars when considering duration and number of troops.

In any event, the U.S. is still at war in Iraq while trying to help rebuild its government. Both Democrats have stated they would remove troops very quickly. John McCain has made it known that he would maintain a significant number of troops, for up to 100 years as has been recently made famous. I'd first like to argue against this idea. The notion that having John McCain as president will somehow require U.S. troops to be stationed in Iraq for any longer than he is president doesn't make any sense. Working under the assumption that every Republican elected president will continue to deploy a large number of troops in Iraq and every Democrat and third-party politician elected president would remove most of the troops, there should be a significant withdrawl within 10 to 15 years. Still, Sen. McCain wants to keep troops in Iraq to help quell the violence and stabilize the government and both Democratic candidates want to leave. I agree with Sen. McCain; we made a mess in Iraq and need to help clean it up.

Something that the government should not help clean up, though, is the housing market. From what I've heard, 95% of Americans with a mortgage are making the payments. I have no idea if that is right, but I'll take it as a slight exaggeration and say 90% to be conservative. This means 10% of Americans haven't been keeping up with their mortgage payments and some of the houses have been foreclosed as a result. I have sympathy for the people who were sincerely duped by an unscrupulous lender, but the entire reason you get a mortgage is because you can't afford your house. Just as it is dangerous to live outside your means with a credit card, it is dangerous to live outside your means by living in a house in which you can't afford the payments. Most people should be intelligent enough to realize that, and fiscally responsible enough to move into a smaller house or apartment if necessary. I don't pity you if you live outside of your means. In addition, if you sign a variable rate mortgage, you shouldn't be up in arms if the rate changes. I don't see a reason why I should bail you out if I've been fiscally responsible and you haven't. But Sens. Clinton and Obama plan to do just that by increasing taxes to help recussitate the housing market, in addition to raising taxes to help recussitate the entire economy. I believe, as John McCain does, that the government should only get involved when absolutely necessary (like with natural disasters or during the Great Depression); everything else will naturally work itself out. I understand that this means some people will suffer as a result, but inherent in the American Dream is the risk of failure and financial trouble. If you want security, move to China.

A third reason I support John McCain is that he intends to eliminate pork barrel and other unnecessary spending. He likes to say that he has never asked for any money for an earmark or pork barrel project. I just did a quick search that alleges he got $10M in 2006 for an academic center for the University of Arizona and $14.3M in 2003 to buy land to increase the size of Luke AFB in Arizona as a buffer zone. I don't know if these are true, but assuming they are that's $24.3M in six years, in contrast to Hillary Clinton's $148M in this year's fiscal defense authorization bill alone and $321M by Barack Obama in his 3 years as a Senator. By the way, those numbers were found by typing 'earmarks' into google along with each Democrat's name and 'pork barrel' with McCain's. Just for reference, the estimate of total annual spending that fits in the pork barrel category is between $30 and $50 billion, with Sen. McCain's estimate at $47 billion. I am against wasteful spending, as is John McCain.


It is disappointing that in order to make it far enough in politics to have a good chance at the presidency you have to make compromises and sell some people out, but that is the nature of the game in national politics. The hope that I hold is that Sen. McCain will, as he has done in the past, move against the message of the majority of the Republican party when it is necessary to do what he believes is in the best interest of the United States of America. Compromising some points in a bill is something that sometimes needs to be done, but compromising your integrity and core values is something that should never occur. I think that John McCain is one of the people that I can trust to hold onto his values and be the president he claims he will be.